Cadbury’s purple trademark loses two battles

Cadbury, the confectionary giant, has used the purple packaging for its “Dairy Milk” chocolate since 1995. In spite of Cadbury’s official rights in the iconic purple hue Registered Trademark for the shade Pantone 2685C, there has been a long hauling “chocolate battle” with their top rival Nestle over its purple trademark rights. Nestle opposed the trademark, asserting that the shade of purple used by Cadbury as its trademark had no peculiar character and created ambiguity. In April 2019, The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) rendered a decision favoring Nestle by rejecting two of Cadbury UK Limited’s more recent trade mark applications corresponding to the purple shade as applied to its chocolate products. It even claimed that the description “the color purple (Pantone 2685C) shown on the form of application” didn’t elucidate how the color is used as a sign in all respects.

It is a matter of fact that, yes, Cadbury has made several attempts in the past for their Trademark Protection by following the decision to allow their description under UK no. 3019362 stated as “the color purple (Pantone 2685C) as shown in the form of application, applied to the whole visible surface of the packaging of goods” which was considered sufficient to register purple as their signature color. They have so far failed to amend the description of their 1995 registration which is considered to provide limited protection for the color with respect to the chocolate in a bar form even after several repeated attempts.

In a nutshell, the UK IPO’s decisions and orders have put Cadbury in an uncertain position leaving them open to further challenges from contenders and rivals. More Visit: http://kashishipr.com/